Digitization
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Exploring the Collection
We are excited to announce a brand new section of the PCMC Blog this month: Explorations. From time to time, we discover topics or objects in the collection that inspire us to explore them in greater depth. The digital projects under our Explorations banner will allow us to spotlight particular objects that otherwise might not be as visible, and they will demonstrate the incredible scope of the collection by highlighting a wide variety of subjects relating to the history of the Panama Canal, the Canal Zone, and Panama. We may dive deep on a single object, telling as much about it as we can, or we may explore broad themes and range far and wide to tell interesting stories. Most of our Explorations will be longer and more in-depth than the average blog post but shorter than the average exhibition.
Our inaugural Explorations project focuses on The Panama American newspaper. Of the Panama Canal Museum Collection’s vast catalog of online resources, the Panama American is by far the most-used with nearly 14 million views of newspaper issues over the past decade. It seemed obvious to us that we wanted to explore the history of this paper a bit more and share some of our resources about it. In addition to covering important milestones in the history of the “newspaper of record” for the Canal Zone, this project spotlights some of the important people who worked for the paper such as founder Nelson Rounsevelle, John K. Baxter, Sidney A. Young, Dr. Harmodio Arias, Ted Scott, and Hindi Diamond, among others. The project also incorporates excerpts from oral history interviews, including a special section on paper routes worked by Canal Zone children. We are thrilled that this project was funded by the Janice G. Grimison and Edward “Ted” W. Scott Library Memorial Fund, which also has supported digitization of the newspaper over the years.
Our second project, Panama Canal Playtime, explores a wide variety of toys, puzzles, board games, playing cards, and models in the collection that relate to the Panama Canal, Canal Zone, and Panama. The objects included in this project span more than a century, dating from the early 1900s to the early 2000s. We have grouped the objects into categories: mechanical tin toys, handheld dexterity games, plastic toys, board games, playing cards, and models. While most of these objects were intended for entertainment, some were created as educational tools or as collectibles. Regardless of their purpose, we think they demonstrate the enduring appeal of the Panama Canal over so many decades.
We will add new digital projects to the Explorations page in the future (we’re already working on our third project), so check back frequently and watch for blog posts announcing new Explorations.
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A Digital Reunion
One major focus of our digitization campaign is to scan as many materials as possible about Canal schools. We have made exciting progress and wanted to share some of the latest additions in our last blog post of this year’s series.
Left: Varsity Sweater from Balboa High School. Gift of Vicki Sizemore. 2006.009.001.
We are compiling a history of the schools and have been hard at work locating information and scanning images. We started with Balboa and have enjoyed mapping the transition from the original wooden school to the concrete school built on the same location in 1917, and the move of the high school to a building nearby.
This wonderful photo album of the construction of the new Balboa High School building that opened in 1942 was recently put up in our digital collection.
Aerial Photograph of Balboa Schools, 1962-1979. Gift of Anne Desmond Abele. II.2019.999.28. 
You can follow Balboa High School all the way to May 15, 1999 and watch a video of the final graduation ceremony. Click here to watch. Or read the May 1999 issue of the Parrakeet.
Balboa High School, The Parakeet Commemorative Edition, May 1999 The collection also illustrates the history of student life – sports, dances, and probably a few days of skipping school. Click on an image to enlarge the slideshow and see some additional captions.
For three years in a row one of the most frequent questions we got was about the Curundu school publications going online and we can finally say, yes, they are online!
Click on the links to look at Cougar’s Cache and Cougar’s Pride. Cougar’s Scratch is coming soon.
Curundu Junior High School Cougars Patch. 2000.35.12. Gift of Richard Williams. In addition to the yearbooks, school publications like newspapers, creative writing journals, and newsletters are also available and text searchable. They include the Balboa School News, the Banquet Bugle (BHS), The Chatterbox (Diablo Heights Elementary), Deviled Ham (Canal Zone College), The Fledgling (Balboa Junior High), Isthmian Inklings (BHS), The Parakeet (BHS), Saltwater Papaya (Canal Zone College), Sun Dial (Cristobal Jr. Sr. High), Tiger Pause (Cristobal Jr. Sr. High), Tiger Tales (Cristobal Jr. Sr. High), Trade Wind (CHS), Zephyr (CHS), and Zephyrus: The Magazine of the Arts (BHS).
Someone recently gifted us the final issue of the Rainbow City Jr. Sr. High School school newsletter Arco Iris. It’s the only issue we have! Do you have any others that you could share with us? We are also looking for additional issues of the Arco Iris or Apex yearbooks.
Left: Arco Iris, 1977.
A number of photo albums and about the schools are also in the digital collection.
Canal Zone Schools Photo History Album, 1904-1953. 2011.999.148.
Latin American Schools Album. 2002.022.008. (This album is only partially digitized as of posting)
Panama Canal College Album, 1980-1989. 2002.022.007. (This album is only partially digitized as of posting)
The next batch of items waiting to be scanned and put online includes hundreds of school related items like photographs and photo sets, scrapbooks, programs, invitations, handbooks, and more publications so keep checking the digital collection for more.
We hope you have enjoyed this year’s fall series on our Digitization Campaign and a big thank you to everyone who has supported us.
Zonian Yearbook, Balboa High School, 1958 -
Your Digital Postcard from Panama
Arrived last Sunday after having a delightful trip. It is more beautiful here than anything I have ever dreamed of.
– Postcard from H.H.W. to Miss Veronica Herz, 1907, Empire, Canal Zone
Postcard of a Steam Shovel in Operation on the Canal. Mailed from Empire, Canal Zone, December 4, 1907. II.2017.36.105.347. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. The handwritten caption reads: Arrived last Sunday after having a delightful trip. It is more beautiful here than anything I have ever dreamed of. Address Empire, Canal Zone H.H.W.
We are proud to be the home of the Brad Wilde Postcard Collection which holds over 15,000 digital and 5,000 physical postcards depicting life and work in Panama, the Canal Zone, and at the Panama Canal.1
Over 6,200 are now available online and more are going up every day!
Having a collection of this size is a tremendous opportunity to explore the environment and the people who lived and worked at the Canal. It includes both publisher and real photo postcards as well as mailed and unmailed. Real photo postcards are especially valuable because they are unique images taken by individual people.
Postcards are amazing resources. They illustrate the changes in a location over the decades and can provide personal tidbits of life at the time if they were used.
If you look closely in the early photograph you can see that the palm trees are so new that they are still surrounded by protective wire cages. II.2021.36.105.5797 and II.2021.36.105.2492. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. Click this link to view a larger version of the early photograph, https://ufdc.ufl.edu/aa00116743/00001. 
Postcards of the Rear View of the Tivoli Hotel. Note the addition of the 3-story wing in 1911. These details can help us date photographs and images on unused postcards that do not have a cancellation stamp. II.2021.36.105.5427 and II.2021.36.105.5423. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. 
Postcard of 1911 Carnival with a group of children wearing hats that read “Compaña Infantile Bomberos,” March 22, 1911. II.2021.36.105.904. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. The note on the back reads: “Dear Mother – Everett and I were out rowing all day yesterday and my face looks like a boiled lobster. Frank.” 
Postcard of Balboa School, Balboa, c. 1925. II.2021.36.105.3236. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. The note on the back reads: “Dear Amy. The picture on the other side is the knowledge factory where Edith got her early training. Rush also gained a little information here. This school is going full blast now.” 
This postcard, mailed from Ancon to a family member in New York in 1913 includes another humorous slice of life.
It reads: “Dear Catherine – Here I am in Panama & this is the hottest place on Earth. Wish you could see these palms, coconuts, banana trees & so on – Enjoyed your letter, will write soon. Sincerely, Uncle Henry.”
Left: Back of Postcard: View of Ancon Hospital Grounds, Panama. II.2021.36.105.3904. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection.
When we were selecting postcards for this post, we of course found the perfect one for the October post Panama’s Past in Print (and now online!) about newspapers and the Star & Herald in Panama.
Left: Postcard. Star & Herald Building where the paper was first published in 1849 – Panama. II.2021.36.105.346. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection.
And this one of a Navy plane at Coco Solo that would have been great for the Digital Intel post.
Right: Coco Solo Navy Airplane. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection.
We also found a postcard touting the benefits of the asbestos shingles installed on “the first permanent building erected by the U.S. Canal Commission in Panama.” Postcard: Caretaker’s Residence Brazos Brook Reservoir. II.2021.36.105.141. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. Click on the images to enlarge.
There were two postcards with identical images but different captions. One is, “Americans Bathing in the Panama Canal Locks at Gatun Sept. 1st, day after Water was Admitted to Locks.” The other is, “Aquatic Sports at Miraflores Locks.”
Can any of you Canal experts look at the image and tell which set of locks is correct? Click on the images to enlarge.
This image of a “wading pool in Balboa.” Click on the image to enlarge.
A wonderful view of Gatun Locks in the center, the 1930/40s Third Locks excavation on the left, and a section of the French canal excavation on the right. Click on the image to enlarge.
Watch or flip through this slideshow of Carnival throughout the decades. Click on the images to enlarge.
Or just enjoy some highlights. Click on the images to enlarge.
In addition to the postcard collection, in honor of the late Robert J. (Bob) Karrer, Jr., and with the generosity of his daughter Sara Lynne, we have started to digitize the important newsletter of the Isthmian Collectors Club (I.C.C. Newsletter/Journal). The Isthmian Collectors Club was created in 1975 with a focus on collecting materials related to postal history, philately materials, stamps, covers, and postcards from Panama or the Canal Zone. Their incredible journal also includes hidden histories and pieces of information related to all aspects of Canal history. As of this post, issues from 1980s-2010s are online.
We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Brad Wilde and Bob Karrer for their help and for providing us with past issues of this wonderful publication.
The Panama Canal Museum Collection also preserves Bob Karrer’s Papers which include the research materials Karrer compiled during his lifetime. His extensive collection touches on a vast and varied number of topics including military history of the Canal Zone, Canal equipment, censorship in WWII, townsites, famous visitors, important buildings in Panama and the Canal Zone, and more. He even has a small folder on unidentified flying objects in the area. His papers were a key resource when we were doing research for our blog post on Robert Fowler’s famous flight over the Panama Canal in 1914.
Stay tuned for more updates on the new treasures to discover online thanks to our digitization campaign. A big thank you to everyone who has supported us.
This post is part of our fall series featuring the current digitization campaign. With the support of the community PCMC has hired someone to work exclusively on scanning treasures in our collection. Over the next few months we will be sharing highlights of what we have accomplished so far. We hope you enjoy the posts and explore all the new things in the digital collection.
- Due to copyright restrictions some can only be viewed in detail on campus at the University of Florida, but many others are now available online in our digital collection. ↩︎
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Digital Intel
Postcard of Fort Amador and 15th Naval District, Canal Zone. 1950-1979. II.2021.36.105.2525. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection. Throughout the history of the Panama Canal, the U.S. military was a critical and consistent part of the picture. The Marines were the first to arrive, but eventually almost all branches of the armed forces were represented there. Places like Albrook, Amador, Coco Solo, Clayton, Gulick, Howard, Kobbe, Quarry Heights, Rodman, and Sherman were household names to civilian and military alike.
As U.S. Army South (USARSOUTH), the Army service component command of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), goes through another historic change, we wanted to highlight it’s long standing connections to the Canal Zone and Panama, and some of the incredible history about the U.S military in Panama that you can find in our collection.
A brief(ish) history:
The Panama Canal Guard was the first to keep the waterway safe, serving during the construction and early years of operation (1907-1917). In 1917, the Panama Canal Department of the U.S. Army was established as a separate geographic command. It evolved into the U.S. Caribbean Defense Command during WWII, a “prototype unified command, to defend the Panama Canal and surrounding area.”
Left: Panama Canal Department Regulations that belonged to Major Walter F. Adams of the 14th Infantry. 1932. Gift of Brad Wilde. II.2020.1.20.
After the war, U.S. Caribbean Command became the theater command, and in 1963 it was renamed U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). In 1986, United States Army South (USARSOUTH) was activated as the Army component of USSOUTHCOM. USARSOUTH moved its headquarters from Panama in 1999, eventually settling at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
Right: United States Army Caribbean Service album of Captain Paul G. Krotts. circa 1949. Gift of Brad Wilde. II.2019.52.14.
U.S Army South and U.S. Army North are currently in the process of merging into a new command based out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Western Hemisphere Command. I was unable to find a rendering of any insignia for the new command. Hopefully, it will still feature the Spanish galleon of the Panama years.
The printed publications, radio broadcasts, and televised programs that were produced by USSOUTHCOM and its predecessor organizations were indispensable focal points of news and community life at the Canal. Southern Command News, later the Tropic Times, was the flagship in print.
We are in the process of digitizing hundreds of issues of these newspapers!
Right now only the 1980s and 1990s are online, but in the coming months the 1960s-1970s will be available, so check back regularly. A huge thank you to Kboy Richie for helping with these publications!
Before USSOUTHCOM and Southern Command News, in the 1950s U.S. Caribbean Command printed the newspaper The Buccaneer (Caribbean Army News). These will be digitized soon too!
Left: Spillway, September 24, 1993
On November 11, 1999 Tropic Times printed its last issue. They celebrated the newspaper’s fantastic run with a commemorative t-shirt. Did you buy one?
Other military publications are being digitized as well, including P.C.A News, K-PASA, Panama Bulldozer, Engineer Bulletin, Commanders Digest, Plane Talk, Stock Item, Section News. A number of issues are from the Army and Navy in the WWII era. The March 1943 issue of the Panama Bulldozer touches on the1943 change from “left hand” to “right hand” driving that was covered in detail in our blog post Leaving Left-Handed Driving Behind.
In addition to newspapers, USCOUTHCOM was in television too. Most of you are probably familiar with the TV network SCN (Southern Command Network), but did you know about its predecessor CFN (Caribbean Forces Network)? Recognize anyone in the photograph?
Caribbean Forces Network (CFN) Televising Cristobal High School Cheerleaders and Mascot, 1957. Canal Zone College Collection. 2005.048.034.014 You can find yourself, family, or friends online in some of our Armed Forces Telephone Directories from the later 20th century. Our entire collection of telephone books starting in the 1940s is currently being digitized and will be online soon too.
For a more detailed history on telephone service at the Panama Canal see our Hidden Treasures in the Telephone Book blog post.
Military intelligence (the insignia on the right) also had a long history at the Canal. The 470th Military Intelligence Brigade was activated at Quarry Heights, Canal Zone in 1944. You can learn more in our digital collection about the roles they played during significant events like World War II and Operation Just Cause. Martha Duncan, a U.S. intelligence officer with deep roots in Panama and the Canal Zone, played a vital role in the eventual apprehension of General Noriega. We had the privilege of sitting down with her for an oral history interview that is now part of our collection. She talked extensively about her childhood in Curundu and Chorrera, playing sports, the importance of family and community, and her career with the U.S. military. Her interview is in the final stages of going online so check back on our oral history page soon.
In the meantime, you can hear part of her story in a panel discussion we co-hosted on Operation Just Cause in 2019 that also included Joe Wood (Director of the Office of Executive Administration, Panama Canal Commission), Dick Morgan (General Services Director, Panama Canal Commission), Kurt Muse (Business owner), and Bob Rupp (Reserve Intelligence Officer). If that is not enough you can find her in Episode 2 of the Netflix show Spy Ops and the podcast True Spies, Episode 99, Catching Noriega.
The history of U.S. military in Panama and the Canal Zone is alive and well here at the Panama Canal Museum Collection, preserved alongside that of their civilian colleagues, and neighbors.
Left: Colonel Richard Barrere and Colonel Frank Mendez cut the 20th Anniversary cake for the U.S. Army Tropic Test Center. 1982. II.2022.63.1. Gift of Marcia Barrere.
What can you tell us about these military patches, pins, pendants, and print blocks from the collection? Did you serve or work in any of these areas? If so, share a story with us.
Stay tuned for more updates on the news treasures to discover online thanks to our digitization campaign A big thank you to everyone who has supported us.
This post is part of our fall series featuring the current digitization campaign. With the support of the community PCMC has hired someone to work exclusively on scanning treasures in our collection. Over the next few months we will be sharing highlights of what we have accomplished so far. We hope you enjoy the posts and explore all the new things in the digital collection.
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Panama’s Past in Print (and now online!)
Newspapers were one of our top priorities when we were selecting the first batch of materials to be scanned in our digitization campaign. We are thrilled to report that hundreds of new issues have come online dating from 1851-1999. We are just getting started so new publications and issues will continue to go online in our digital collection. You can look at individual titles here.
Left: A man reads a newspaper in Cathedral Plaza, Panama City. 1900-1920. 2014.40.15. Gift of Dusty Graham and Ann Lafferty.
Although our main focus is the American Era of the Canal (1904-1999), we do have materials that cover early transits across the isthmus and the Panama Railroad. In 2016 we received an incredible bound volume that contained 134 issues of historic newspapers dating from 1851-1854: The Panama Herald (92 issues), The Panama Star (21 issues), The Aspinwall Courier (13 issues), The Steamer Courier (1 issue), The Weekly Echo (4 issues), and The Daily Echo (3 issues). Follow the links to read the newspapers online.
Many of these issues are rare and difficult to access. The Aspinwall Courier in particular has very few issues known in existence. Aspinwall was an early name for the city of Colón, built to be the Atlantic Terminus of the Panama Railroad and named for one of the railroad’s co-founders, William Henry Aspinwall. Visit our online exhibit about the railroad to learn more.
Panoramic Photo of Colon, Republic of Panama. Gift of Patricia Bjorneby. But if rare treasures are not your thing, perhaps the history of The Panama Herald will peak your interest.
Around 1850, in the days before the Panama Railroad, when transits of the isthmus were still made by boat and mule, John Judson Ames arrived on the Atlantic side. He was on his way to California carrying dreams of starting California’s first newspaper and a 1,200 pound printing press. To call his crossing calamitous would be an understatement.
Ames rented a flat-bottom barge to carry the press to the town of Cruces on the Chagres River. At some point in the journey the distribution of weight shifted causing the barge to tip. Much to everyone’s horror, they watched the press slide into the water and immediately sink to the bottom. After “a day or two” of extraordinary effort, a team of men eventually drug the press onto the shore and put it back on the barge.
They continued slowly to Cruces where the over-land portion of the crossing began. Ames rented the two largest mules that he could find, put a mattress across their backs to hold the press, and made his way to Panama City.
He arrived after three weeks of travel, sick with fever, and too late for the passage he had booked to San Diego. The next ship was not scheduled to come for three months.
To pass the time during his forced sojourn he decided to set up his printing press and start The Panama Herald. When the time came for him to leave, he sold the newspaper (minus the press) and within a short time it merged with a competitor, The Panama Star – thus the Star & Herald newspaper was born!
That Star & Herald was a standard news source in Panama from 1854 until the late 20th century. It is still published today as La Estrella de Panamá, the name of the Spanish language section created early in the run of The Panama Star.
Ames went on to found the San Diego Herald newspaper and included the account shown here of his trip across Panama in the first issue.
Right: San Diego Herald, Vol. 1, No. 1, May 29, 1851. California Digital Newspaper Collection.
In a fantastic twist of historical fate the actual press that sank in the Chagres River is still around!
It is currently safe and dry in The Henry Ford Greenfield Village’s Printing Office and Tin Shop.
Washington Press, circa 1848. Made by R. Hoe & Company, New York, New York. The Henry Ford Greenfield Village. Click here to see a video about the Washington Press and printing during this time. 
The Star & Herald occupied a beautiful building in Panama City’s Casco Viejo, near the famous Golden Altar in the Church of San José (Saint Joseph). The building was recently renovated into an apartment building if anyone is in the market for real estate with a storied past.
Postcard Panama City as seen from the Air. 1904-1930. Foto Flatau. II.2024.53.286. Gift of Mike Bedrin. Stay tuned for more information about other new additions to our online collection. Numerous school newspapers and newsletters, the Tropic Times/Southern Command News, U.S military publications from World War II, photo albums, and more are all waiting in the queue. They will be text searchable, so if you are looking for a specific event or person just type in some keywords and enjoy what comes up.
Newspaper stand in Santa Ana Plaza, Panama City. Foto Flatau. Brad Wilde Postcard Collection.
This post is part of our fall series featuring the current digitization campaign. With the support of the community PCMC has hired someone to work exclusively on scanning treasures in our collection. Over the next few months we will be sharing highlights of what we have accomplished so far. We hope you enjoy the posts and explore all the new things in the digital collection.
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Saying Hello… and Farewell to a Team Member
Hello, all! My name is Sophia DeLeon, and for the last few months, I’ve had the privilege of being the Imaging Assistant for the Panama Canal Museum Collection. I am a recent UF graduate who has worked on digitization projects at both the UF Libraries and the Harn Museum of Art. My work with the PCMC has consisted of digitizing material from the collection in order to make it readily accessible outside of the archive.
I will be departing the UF Libraries this month to pursue a graduate degree in History at the University of Virginia, where I hope to put to good use all that I’ve learned working on the PCMC. Thank you all for letting me be part of this incredible project!
A note from the PCMC Curators: We’ll certainly miss Sophia! She started working with us in March as our first Imaging Assistant dedicated to digitizing materials in PCMC. In the four months Sophia worked with us, she was able to digitize thousands of pages from newspapers and other items and make them available in our digital collection. In upcoming months, we will spotlight some of our newly digitized titles here on our blog. Also, we are already in the process of hiring Sophia’s replacement so that the scanning work can continue without pause. Good luck with your graduate degree, Sophia!
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Digging Through our Photo Albums and Scrapbooks
Photograph by Ray L. Quick. A handwritten caption on the back reads, “a steam shovel and Lidgerwood flat car train on west side of cut between Pedro Miguel Locks and temporary wooden trestle at Paraiso Junction.” February, 26, 1913. Photo Album of Ray L. Quick. 2011.999.142. Ray Quick worked in the Engineering Department during the final years of the construction of the Panama Canal. We saved the last post of our series highlighting the collection’s digitization efforts to showcase the number one item on our priority list of things to scan – photo albums and scrapbooks. The goal of these posts is to show you what kinds of amazing treasures we have and to get you excited about the digitization campaign.
Our photographs and papers are physically stored according to subject matter which makes them easier to find when you are looking for something specific, but you can’t do this with albums, scrapbooks, or groups of photographs – there could be countless topics included in one item. Finding the perfect photo or piece of information buried inside one of them can be difficult. Being able to search through them digitally is much easier and it is also safer for the objects.
It happens to us every year when we are working on our annual exhibit for the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery here in the library. (Did you know our gallery is dedicated to the BHS Class of 1958?)
A few weeks after an exhibition opens, we will be looking in a photo album or scrapbook and discover an object that would have been perfect for the exhibition and it’s too late.
Gary Hudson Album, 1974-2020. Gift of Barbara Hudson. II.2021.67.7.
Enjoy a few treasures that we found while working on the blog post and looking through over 33 linear feet of albums and scrapbooks.
Preserving the Past
Scrapbook of Betty Snow (Betty Chan, Betty Sutton), 1930s-1940s. Gift of Cheryl and Pat Williams. 2015. 235.1. 
Betty Chan (Top Right) Balboa High School Yearbook. The Zonian. 1943 This incredible scrapbook was created by Betty Chan, a member of the Balboa High School Class of 1943. In addition to documenting her life and Balboa High School during those years, it includes a significant amount of information about what was going on in the Canal Zone and in Panama during World War II. It is especially unique because it has materials from the Chinese community in the area and their war relief efforts. The contents include letters, school papers, tickets, invitations, programs, war bonds, ephemera, photographs, drawings, clippings, and more.
It will be wonderful for everyone to be able to browse this scrapbook online, but digitization is also important for preservation purposes.
The paper is extremely brittle which makes it prone to breaking and loss. As you can see in the photo below some of Betty’s writing is already gone. Digitizing it now ensures that nothing more is lost to time.
We have showcased this scrapbook in two classes here at UF, but it is too fragile to bring out very often or let a patron look through without assistance from a staff member.
Because of the significant amount of fold outs, letters still inside envelopes, and other details it will take a lot of time to digitize this scrapbook property.
Use the left and right arrows to enjoy these selected pages.
Scrapbook of Betty Snow (Betty Fern Yee Chan, Betty Sutton), 1930s-1940s. Gift of Cheryl and Pat Williams. 2015. 235.1.
Did you know…
Did you know that the Panama Canal’s famous dredge, the Rialto M. Christensen has been covered in snow?
Although it was commissioned by the Panama Canal Commission in the 1970s and has spent its entire career in the tropical climate of Panama, it was built at a shipyard in Japan. This album contains a photographic timeline of its origin, 1976 through 1977: from the keel laying ceremony, to construction, and then testing. It also includes a photo of the workers playing soccer during a break in a snow storm.
History of the Construction of the 15 Cubic Yard Dipper Dredge “U.S. Rialto M. Christensen, 1976-1977. Gift of Robert and Alice Christensen. 1999.8.1.
What might have been
This scrapbook album, “Golden Memories of My Years in the Canal Zone,” documents the years around 1958-1979 when Don Date worked as an architect in the Administration Building of the Canal Zone and includes various projects he designed: Canal Zone College, Gorgas Hospital, Cristobal High School, Balboa High School, housing, Coco Solo gym, Rainbow City theater, and more. The renderings below of proposed designs are a few of our favorites.
Album of Don Date. Gift of Don and Loretta Date. II.2022.81.23
This flyer is also in the scrapbook. I bought a t-shirt with this design at the Friends of the Panama Canal Museum Collection Silent Auction at the PCS Reunion a few years ago – I learned while looking at this scrapbook for the blog post that the shirt was made for the Chagres Aero Club Annual Air Show in 1979.
A small piece of a big picture
This photo album documents part of the Chief Aptakisic‘s 1976 journey from Panama to New York. The schooner was refurbished and sailed by Sea Explorer Scouts and adult volunteers to “Operation Sail ’76,” the Bicentennial Tallship Parade in New York Harbor.
It is just one small piece of the big historical picture that could be researched and reconstructed through the significant number of items we have about this subject. When you can view our albums in the larger context of the everything else in the collection, they have even more personal and historic value.
Did you sail on the Chief Aptakisic or participate in the Canal Zone Project Windjammer ’76 which helped raise the money used to refurbish the 53-foot sailing vessel?
Photo album relating to Chief Aptakisic, May-June 1976. Gift of Sherry Austerfield. II.2017.999.63.
In 2021 we received a large collection of papers and photographs from George Brisbin, captain of Chief Aptakisic during the 1976 voyage. It includes work plans, blueprints, photographs, invitations, pamphlets, keepsakes, writings by crew members, clippings, and other related items.
Other fabulous donations related to Chief Aptakisic include 16mm film footage taken by one of the crew members, additional photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, awards, and more. See our Outside the Box blogpost to learn more about AV and film items in the collection.
Military Mementos
Our collection includes dozens of photo albums that document U.S. military tours of duty in or on trips through Panama as well as decades of scrapbooks created by Officers’ Wives Clubs. They include photographs, newsletters, souvenirs, job notes, and many other unique items.
An album of the 1958 Fort Amador Wives Club has already been digitized so you can get a preview of the great things to come once we are able to start scanning more.
Other civilian albums document the military history of the Panama Canal as well.
Photo album of before and after Operation Just Cause, December 1989. Gift of Joe Wood. 2005.83.22.
Albums for Governors and Administrators
These official photograph albums were created to document the service of different governors and administrators. Each series has 2-4 albums. They contain images of official meetings, diplomatic visits, awards ceremonies, dinners and luncheons, on-the-job duties, the wedding of a governor’s daughter, and events in Canal Zone life. They are wonderful resources and would spark memories for those that lived and worked at the Canal.
Mapping the past
This scrapbook includes maps of Coco Solo Stations during World War II. Because of the potential danger to installations during the war, military maps from the Canal Zone during the 1930s and 1940s can be hard to find. In addition to those official historical documents there are some great photographs of Canal Zone life.
Gary Hudson Album, 1974-2020. Gift of Barbara Hudson. II.2021.67.7.
A Grand Finale in Gavilan
The best kind of photographs and other materials come with additional information.
This scrapbook page lists the date, subject, location, and individuals pictured in the photograph at the bottom – an archivist’s dream!
In the summer of 1947, the “Gavilan Area Gang”, consisting of James Lovelady, David Tate, Ralph Conner, Bobby Zumbado, and Charlie Hardy, was photographed playing cowboys in the front yard of quarters 1531 on the corner of Calabash and Almond Streets in the Gavilan area, Balboa, Canal Zone.
Scrapbook. Gift of Bob Zumbado. II.2019.41.11.
We will close out this blog series highlighting our digitization campaign and our posts for 2024 with a sunset from the Photo Album Belonging to Frederick Nobles which is digitized and available for you to view in our digital collection. Gift of Helen Sheppard. 2002.143.1.
We hope you have enjoyed this brief glimpse into the buried treasures of our photo album and scrapbook collection. They hold incredible pieces of Panama Canal history, both official and personal, civilian and military, young and old, early and late in the 20th century.
See you in the New Year!
Please reach out to us if you are interested in donating any albums that you have related to the rich and complex history of the Panama Canal. John R. Nemmers, Curator, jnemmers@ufl.edu, 352-273-2766.
This post is part of a fall campaign to raise awareness about our two-year initiative to digitized more of the collection. The goal is to hire a new member of our team whose only job will be to digitize items related to the Panama Canal – that means more memories and research material online for everyone to enjoy! Click here to learn more about our digitization campaign.
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Outside the Box
Stereograph 20882: Loading Drill-Holes with Dynamite, Preparatory to Blasting Near Empire on the Panama Canal Route. 1909. Gift of Bill Angrick. 2013.2.167. Note the wooden dynamite boxes. In the slideshow at the bottom of the Digital School Days blog post there is a photo of similar wooden boxes used to ship and carry explosives during the construction of the Canal being used as scrap material in a school shop class. This fall we are highlighting our past, present, and aspirational digitization efforts. Scanning two-dimensional documents and photographs can be pretty straight forward, but what about those atypical items or the incredible Panama Canal and Canal Zone artifacts that we have?
Audio Visual Recordings
One group of items that requires special treatment is audio visual (AV). These videos or audio recordings include official productions of Canal and Canal Zone documentation as well as home videos of everyday life, holidays, performances, events, and trips into many different regions of Panama. The ability to once again see and hear the sights and sounds of life in decades past adds a special layer. We receive items in all kinds of formats: 8mm and 16mm films, DVDs, VHS tapes, USB drives, and others. The older, film based items have to be digitized by a company that specializes in these materials and has the right equipment.
This video clip came from a home movie of an American family living at the Panama Canal, shot in between 1955 and 1965. It includes scenes of life and nature in rural Panama, the Chinese Gardens in the Canal Zone, the lottery, trips to Old Panama, and more. We had to edit the original 23 minutes down to a short 3:30 clip for the blog but you can view the full video in the Panama Canal Museum Collection digital collection.
Home Movie of an American Family or Group (possibly the family of Roy C. Stockham). c.1955-1965. Three objects in the AV queue that I am excited to see eventually made available online are: films of the Dillon and Rowley Families from the 1940s-1960s that include footage of holiday celebrations, nursery and Sunday school, and the Canal locks; home movies of William Hitchcock from 1930-1961 and a number of reels containing unknown audio recordings; and home movies of Edward Powell that include footage of life in Panama and the Canal Zone.
Do you have any movies from your time at the Panama Canal that you would like to share?
Panoramic and Large Format Photographs
Some of you might remember the 2023 blog post “Panoramic Panama” that detailed the return of some wonderful panoramic photographs from our conservation and digitization facility. A few of those photos were six feet long! It is not hard to understand how different the process of digitizing something of that size would be from a usual 4×6 family snapshot or 8×10 official photograph.
Because of the large and somewhat unwieldy size of many panoramic images they often come to us tightly rolled. They have to be flattened in a special process that slowly unrolls them without damaging the delicate surface.
The rolled photos on the right are safely stored together until they can be treated by our fabulous conservation team.
Watch the videos below to see the 24 hour process of flattening three PCMC photographs in about 1 minute!
Preservation Process Step 1: Humidity Chamber. Humidity is slowly introduced into the chamber which softens the curling of the paper.
Preservation Process Step 2: Flattening. Evenly distributed weight is used to flatten the paper.
A heartfelt thank you to Katie Smith, Jimmy Barnett, and April Helena of the Libraries’ Preservation and Conservation Unit who took these videos for us while they were working on our photos.
Check out their fabulous Instagram account @UFPreservation.
Panoramic Photo of Ft. Sherman, Canal Zone. By E.O. Goldbeck. Gift of Carol A. (Kellog) Cooley. 2000.92. Negatives and Slides
One great digital success is the availability of an album of negatives taken by A.G. Bedell during construction of the Canal. The negatives were scanned and you can view them as images in our digital collection. This allows people to see the pictures and it keeps the original negatives safe from repeated handling and use.
Bedell took selfies with his co-workers in their office, he took pictures of his adventures around the Canal Zone and Panama, and he appears to have had a good sense of humor. Click to view the full album, Panama Canal Negative Album by A.G. Bedell. Gift of Kenneth Roth. 2014.50.1.
We have 3 boxes of glass plate negatives, used in photography during the 1800s through around 1930. The fragile nature of the glass and the photo surface requires very special handling and scanning equipment.
On the right is a glass negative created by Frank E. Reed during the construction of the Panama Canal lock gates. 2012.1.1.
We have traditional 35mm slides too – approximately 10 more archival storage boxes like this one of slides waiting patiently to be scanned. There are incredible images hiding inside, but they don’t get much attention because of the time consuming process of looking through them one by one.
3D Scanning
Every once in a while we get to do something pretty fun with the UF Libraries’ Digital Services team. In 2022, they received an internal Strategic Opportunities Grant to purchase new equipment and test it out. Digital photographs would be used to create a 3D model through a process called photogrammetry. Below are three examples of objects from PCMC that were digitized using this method. Click on the images below to access the 360 view.
This baseball was signed by the 1955 Balboa High School Champs. Gift of Steward Brown. 2000.62.1.3.
Were you on the 1955 BHS baseball team? Do you have any stories to share from that season?
This Mindi Orange Drink Carton is one of the many food cartons that we have in the collection. Gift of Cleve Soper. 2001.119.1.3.
What memories can you share about Mindi Dairy?
This Carnival mask from Colon is one of two that came in as a gift from Elizabeth Brandenburg, II.2018.41.1. The other mask was too difficult to scan using this method because of the fine details – specifically the eyelashes!
We have so many amazing artifacts and items of outside the box sizes and shapes. We hope you enjoyed learning about some of our ongoing digitization efforts and dreams for the future. Stay tuned for more…
This post is part of a fall campaign to raise awareness about our two-year initiative to digitized more of the collection. The goal is to hire a new member of our team whose only job will be to digitize items related to the Panama Canal – that means more memories and research material online for everyone to enjoy! Click here to learn more about our digitization campaign.
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Hidden Treasures in the Telephone Book
“The Panama Canal telephone directory is a gold mine of information. It’s an almanac, a history, and, if one wishes to be prosaic, it can even be used to look up a telephone number…it’s size and content have reflected the growth and organization of the Company…In a very real way, it tells the story of the Panama Canal.” – Panama Canal Review, Spring, 1975
This fall we are highlighting the digitization efforts of the Panama Canal Museum Collection. Every year we get numerous emails from individuals traveling to Panama that want to know the former addresses of friends and family that lived in the Canal Zone. The telephone books are usually our first stop. Because we know they could make such an impact, they are near the top of our priority list of items to scan and make accessible online.
E.N. Nelson. Gang No.1 Telephone and Telegraph Relocation. Gift of Linda Adelsberger. 2011.021.001. 
In 1882, the French company working to dig a canal across the Isthmus installed a telephone system. The U.S. inherited that system in 1904 when they took over the construction project. The first telephone models had wooden cases and used a crank to signal the operator.
In 1909 the installation of telephones in most residences was permitted. Apparently the phones were a big hit because in 1912 an order was issued that telephone calls must be limited to five minutes.
Image on left: Antique Magneto Telephone from Canal Construction Site. c. 1908. Gift of Shirley Million Muse. 2005.55.1.
Telephone Card of A.L. Robinson. Gift of Tony and Nancy Michel. II.2024.16.4 
Telephone Card of A.L. Robinson. Gift of Tony and Nancy Michel. II.2024.16.4 The first edition of the Panama Canal phonebook was printed in December 1915. It was a small 59 page pamphlet printed locally at the Panama Canal Press in Mount Hope. For two years the phonebook was printed twice a year but as the cost increased the decision was made to reduce it to only once.
These early books of course include recognizable names. If you wanted to call George W. Goethals, the Canal’s Chief Engineer, at the office, the number was Balboa 230. If it was a social call or after hours emergency and you needed to reach him at home, it was Balboa 300.
Multiple surnames appear in the telephone books decade after decade, documenting the second, third, and fourth generations of families that lived and worked at the Panama Canal.
The image on the right is from the Winter 1977 issue of the Panama Canal Review.
The earliest edition in our large collection of telephone books is 1941 so we are missing the incredible information printed in the first 25 years.
I am pretty jealous of Communications Manager James W. Riley’s complete collection, seen on the left in a image from the Panama Canal Review, Spring 1975.
Do you have any of the missing editions that you are willing to share with us? If so, contact us at jnemmers@ufl.edu.
As seen in an office photo from 1919, at that time the directories were required to have a hole punched in the corner and a wire loop provided so that the user could hang it on a hook near the telephone.
Panama Canal Review, Spring 1975 Our 1945 directory still has a loop attached to it, and in comparing multiple editions it looks like maybe 1961 was the last year that they punched holes. See the photo below of the 1945, 1961 and 1962 directories.
Significant features of the directory came and went. A decision to stop including the tide tables, a long debated issue, was finally made in 1965. In 1972, the telephone books became bilingual, printing information in both English and Spanish.
The maps appeared for the first time in 1959. Most directories contain maps of Canal Zone townsites, Panama City, and Colon.
In addition to the blank maps, our digital collection includes three sets of Canal Zone maps with the names of former residents written on the buildings where they lived. The map of Margarita on the right is from Hometowns of the Canal Zone. Hometowns of the Canal Zone: An Interactive Display, Memory Lane, and Mapping Memories.
The images below show people hard at work to keep the Canal and the Canal Zone connected. Move through the slideshow with the left and right arrows.
Did you every work on the telephone system or on printing the directory at the Panama Canal?
Below is a quick scan we made of the 1974 phonebook so that people can get an idea of what they are missing! (When our digital services team scans them the quality will be much better). Use the + sign on the top tool bar to zoom in or download a copy with the link below the document.
We hope you enjoyed this post about the telephone books. Once we are able to have them scanned they will be put into our digital collection and they will be text searchable – you can type in a name, place, or business and discover!
This post is part of a fall campaign to raise awareness about our two-year initiative to digitized more of the collection. The goal is to hire a new member of our team whose only job will be to digitize items related to the Panama Canal – that means more memories and research material online for everyone to enjoy! Click here to learn more about our digitization campaign.
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Digital School Days
Balboa High School Yearbook 1958, Canal Zone College Yearbook 1964, Paraiso High School Yearbook 1962, Cristobal High School Yearbook 1980, Rainbow City High School Yearbook 1976 The U.S. school system at the Panama Canal was established around 1904 and ran, in various iterations, until the final class graduated in 1999. The Panama Canal Museum Collection includes materials that extensively document the history of the schools and the experiences of the students, teachers, coaches, and administrators that walked the halls.
You might know that many of the Canal Zone school yearbooks, old school newspapers, and creative writing publications can be read in our digital collection.
Maybe you even know about the handful of amazing photo albums about the schools that we have partially digitized online: Canal Zone Schools, Photo History, 1904-1953, Elementary Schools, Latin American or Local Rate Schools, Canal Zone Schools Buildings and Grounds, and others.
What you might not know is how much more we have to share! Scroll down to enjoy many different aspects of the school years of yesteryear.
In addition to the stories you can hear in our oral history interviews we have boxes and boxes of treasures about Canal Zone schools: photographs, programs, tickets, cheer books, invitations, decals, dance cards, old forms some of you might recognize, old forms some of you might want to forget…
Canal Zone Schools, Report of Progress. II.2019.999.493. 
Canal Zone Schools, Unsatisfactory Work Report. Gift of Robert G. Lanphear. 2000.73.38. Headed to School
Cristobal Junior High School Assembly Program, 1967. Gift of Joan Ohman. 2002.30.37.10. 
Panama Canal School Bus Service Ticket Belonging to Betsy Foster, 1949-1950. Gift of Elizabeth Astin. II.2021.45.5. 
Panama Canal School Bus Service Ticket Belonging to Betsy Foster, 1949-1950. Gift of Elizabeth Astin. II.2021.45.5. 
Canal Zone Schools Student Identification Card for Free Transportation Belonging to Joel Baglien, 1974-1975. Gift of Joel Baglien. II.2024.32.24. 
Directory of Schools, 1980-1981. Gift of W.E. Bondurant. 2004.25.17. 
Blank Registration Form for Canal Zone Schools. Gift of Alice McGann. 2002.152.34
Use the left and right arrows to move through this slideshow. Note on the back of one the bus tickets the bus driver is called a chauffeur.
It’s Football Season
What About Basketball…and Baseball…and Track…and Swimming
Canal Zone Junior College Invitational Basketball Tournament, 1956. Coach Stewart Brown Collection. 2000.62.12 
Interscholastic Swim Meet, April 25, 1980. Gift of Pat Beall. 2002.38.25. 
Pacific Little League Annual Banquet Program, April 27, 1956. Gift of Samuel Field. 2013.999.10. 
Curundu Junior High School Interscholastic Triangular Meet, March 11, 1977. Gift of Pat Beall. 2002.38.24.
Perhaps you Prefer Performances
Program for “An Evening of Band Music”, 1955. Gift of Judy Lindsay. 2003.96.7.3. 
Program for Twelfth Night, Presented by Balboa High School Drama Club and Thespian Troupe, March 1976. Gift of Teresa Tartar. II.2017.17.25. Note that Don Randel and Victor Herr are part of the evening’s entertainment during the Balboa High School Concert Band’s presentation of “An Evening of Band Music.” Click here to learn more about Don Randel’s memories of music and theater in the Canal Zone – Bonus: you will hear about Lucho too!
JROTC/ROTC
Souvenirs of School Dances
Dance cards were used to record the names of prospective partners at a formal dance. The pencils were attached to make the process of writing names easier.
This group of Cristobal High School dance cards from 1936-1939 belonged to Morag (Marion) McIntyre. Gift of Joanna Cole. II.2024.30.9.
This dance card is from the 1948, Balboa High School, Junior Senior Prom. Did you ever fill out a dance card?
It was a close race between Mike and “Boozy” for who got the most dances. Junior Senior Prom Dance Card, 1948. Gift of Jo Ann (Standefer) DeLoof. 2005.78.20.
Graduation and Baccalaureate Ceremonies
Cristobal High School Graduation Invitation, 1967. Gift of Joan Ohman. 2000.30.37.19. 
Baccalaureate Program for Paraiso High School, 1974. II.2019.999.101. 
Balboa High School Graduation Invitation, 1979. Gift of Charles Hummer. 2000.37.22. Elementary Schools Too
Balboa Elementary School Spring Music Program, 1969. 2003.36.8. 
Los Rios Elementary School Yearbook, 1987-1988. Gift of the Friends of the Panama Canal Museum Collection. II.2023.29.6. We Haven’t Even Talked About Photos Yet
Use the left and right arrows to flip through the slideshow of photos.
This post includes just a small fraction of the items we have related to schools in the Canal Zone, but we hope it was enough to get you excited about out efforts. If you attended one of these schools please consider donating originals or scans of your materials to the Panama Canal Museum Collection.
Follow the blog during the coming weeks to learn more about digitization in the Panama Canal Museum Collection.
This post is part of a fall campaign to raise awareness about our two-year initiative to digitized more of the collection. The goal is to hire a new member of our team whose only job will be to digitize items related to the Panama Canal – that means more memories and research material online for everyone to enjoy! Click here to learn more about our digitization campaign.
